Sialkot: A mob attacks a Christian’s house during a prayer service, Christians feel barred from praying

A Christian’s house in a village in Sialkot’s district was attacked by a mob of Muslims at the time when a prayer service was going on in the house.

According to details, a mob of Muslims attacked house of a Christian where a prayer meeting was going on. This incident took place in a village Nawan Pind, Sadho Mahal in District Sialkot.

Prior to this incident, the local Muslims had seized church property. A clash erupted between the local Christians and Muslims which was intervened by the police.

On January 4, police arranged for a reconciliation meeting between the Christians and Muslims. It has been revealed that the Muslims arrived armed with weapons at this meeting and instead of holding talks attacked the houses of Christian villagers.

While remarking about this situation, one of the local Christian resident of the village Bashir Masih said that the local Muslims have almost “made it almost impossible” for the Christians to worship even in their homes.

“We obtained written approval from the district police chief, Rai Ijaz, to hold a three-hour prayer meeting in the private courtyard of a Christian, Javed Masih, on Jan. 3, which was a Sunday.”

Bashir further said that the police official had also deployed two policemen at the venue in order ot provide security to the local Christians.

At the time of attack about, 30 Christians were in the house who were worshipping because the church building had already been seized. The Christians stated that a Muslim man namely Rashid Jutt, stormed into the house where Christians were worshipping. Rashid along with his accomplices disrupted during the prayer service.

Bashir Masih says, “The policemen assigned for our security were late, therefore one of our boys, Gulshan, stepped forward to stop Jutt from harassing the congregation. The two soon started fighting, but we intervened and separated them. Jutt then left, vowing to ‘teach all of us a lesson.’” Bashir further said that the Rashid Jutt, later filed an FIR against Gulshan and five other Christians of torturing him.